That makes me angry, because I wrote that it was over. I could’ve been writing about other dumb stuff. Instead, I wrote about that dumb stuff.

These talks are going to turn into the legislative committee equivalent of a land war in Asia. Want proof? Check out the Thursday a.m. comments. Finding the common thread is like looking for Waldo, if he was hiding in Carmen San Diego’s backpack.

The only semi-funny part of this whole mess is that the remaining 33 percent of the country that held favorable views of President Bush have turned on him as if he was a quart of year-old buttermilk.

Americans hate this plan. Of course, they’re just mad over $4 gasoline and don’t see the big picture. If some form of bailout isn’t drafted, you’ll be burning your worthless cash in your car to get to the bread lines.

The Blame Game, home edition

Still, the deal was on the road to a solution, then McCain showed up, and now it’s mysteriously bogged down.

• Is McCain to blame? The Democrats who thought they had a deal with Republicans clearly think so.

• Has Obama done squat to help? By doing nothing, yes, he has. The negotiations have been going on for a while and he’s had no part of them. He’s probably right in thinking he can’t step in. Plus, there wouldn’t be crowds watching him. Instead, he showed up at a White House meeting and a photo op. If you look in the background of this picture, you can kind of see him off in the background. That’s metaphor, my friends.

• Do I have to write any more about it today? I hope not. There’s a chance tonight’s debate might not happen, or that it will be postponed and the vice presidential debate canceled. And if that happens, I’ve got to do this…

At least he didn’t steal this one

Sen. Joe Biden should return to history class. In an interview with Katie Couric, the Democratic vice presidential candidate said the nation should look to President Franklin Roosevelt for guidance. According the Yahoo News story

“When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened,’” Barack Obama’s running mate recently told the “CBS Evening News.”

Minor problem: Herbert Hoover was president during the stock market crash. And the television wouldn’t be introduced as a product for 10 years after the stock market crash.

Speaking of Katie Couric interviews…

What the hell is Gov. Sarah Palin talking about in this clip? Her comments aren’t taken out of context or stitched together. It’s solid, unedited video. And check out Couric’s face while Palin talks.

Your life could always be worse

And you could complain about it and feel sorry for yourself. Or, you could set a goal and make something — albeit sad and pathetic — out of your life.

That’s what Henry Earl has chosen to do. He’s not a complainer. He’s a man of action. For some, 1000 arrests would be a bad thing. For Earl, it’s become a day-glo — as in the color of county jail overalls — badge of honor.

Well said

Facebook is for narcissists, according to ABC News. I can’t wait to log on after this and tell everyone what I think about that.

Church uses Twitter

In today’s Express-News, I write about Imagine Fellowship, a San Antonio start-up church that’s using the microblogging/communications utility to build its community. You can follow Imagine Church on Twitter and see what they’re doing. Of course, you can only do that after you follow me

And in other text-messaging news…

The hand of communism is keeping your hands on the wheel

California has banned texting while driving! I guess this means Cali drivers will have to buy Air Cards for their laptops and use full keyboards while they drive. Nice going, Gov. Schwarzenegger.

I blog every weekday about the Web, the world and culture..when I’m sober, that is.

10 Responses

JohnC – I’m not sure we should blame the lenders. They have bought insurance to cover loan defaults.

When you buy food you see the ingredients on the label. Lenders bought insurance to cover the risk of defaults. The problem is, there is no regulation requiring truth-in-labeling for this type of insurance, thanks to people like Phil Gramm, who also authored the “Enron Loophole”.

Conservatism has been hijacked by Cronyism. True conservatives want to minimize gov’t interference in the marketplace, but still want transparency. The most fundamental form of transparency is truth-in-labeling.

Tragically, the public is thinking conservatism (not cronyism) got us into this mess and will hysterically demand regulation that goes far beyond simple truth-in-labeling.

I am confused by something. If the banks controlled the notes, and the lenders were working with their borrowers, why didn’t these institutions just stop raising the interest rates and lock them into the lower payment for a while longer. The institions would not have been hurt, the homeowners would have then been able to refinance the loan if they had the credit, and the market would not have had cold water splashed on it.

In my opinion this whole mess is due to greed on everyone’s part but mostly on the lender’s part. I know conservatives and republicans want to blame ACORN for this and they want to blame LBJ, Carter, and Clinton for this but the truth as I understand it is that we have people buying houses they couldn’t afford and greedy lenders were too happy to make up information to help them buy those houses.

Seems like the press should be discussing Credit Default Swaps a lot more. This is a $62 trillion market that is very unstable with no regulation – thanks to Phil Gramm.

“Regulation of this market was specifically prohibited under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2001. That provision was slipped into the bill in the dead of night by our old friend Senator Phil Gramm of Texas — now Vice Chairman of UBS (UBS).”

I like it M2. I don’t think it’s asking too much to give up your golden parachute if your company has failed – YOU just failed at your job so why be compensated? Speaking of failing – Paling really failed to impress me during her interview – she evaded questions and never really answered them. Now I know why the McCain campaign doesn’t want the press near her – she has nothing to say. I think the only reason Obama went to the White House was because W asked him too, if McCain was going to just show up; might as well make it a photo op. If McCain doesn’t show up at the debate tonight, what are they going to make of the debate?a townhall for Obama? If so, McCain just proved to me he can’t multi-task. I need that in a leader or community organizer. *sigh*

Someone tell me if there is something wrong with my plan. We go ahead and agree to bailout these financial companies BUT as a provision of bailing them out, their executives must admit to their failed leadership and they must surrender 80% of their personal assets to repay to taxpayers.

In addition, they can never lead a financial institution again.

This is a sound conservative idea as it insures someone is accountable and responsible for their actions and that they pay the consequences for their bad decisions.

I am sick of upper management making horrific decisions and the lower level people, taxpayers, and consumers must all pay a price while the buffoon who made the bad decision keeps his job.

Look at the Yugo. The workers who worked on that car are gone while the execs at the company retained their jobs.

Is Palin out of her ever-lovin’ mind??? The governor doesn’t respond if a foreign country’s aircraft enters US airspace, regardless of which state it’s in. The United States military forces handle those incursions and they are NOT under the supervision of ANY state governor.

Yeah, Sarah, I used to live in Hokkaido, Japan where you can see Siberia on a clear day and that doesn’t make me any kind of expert on foreign policy either.

It looks like Katie Couric has more experience with foreign policy and government issues than Sarah Palin.

Interesting how Palin didn’t say “Katie” during this interview. Or at least this segment, did she anywhere else in the interview? Contrast that with the interview with Charles “Charlie” Gibson. I wonder if she is just unable to handle being interviewed by a woman.